Absalom: Ghosts of London [Paperback]

As reviewed on my 2000AD blog Brit Cit Reviews.

One of the great things about 2000AD is its relatively high turnover of new strips. Sure you have the old classics like Dredd and Strontium Dog, but 2000AD has never been a comic to rest on its laurels, continuingly bringing us brand new strips too enjoy. Sometimes they don't work and are forgotten about pretty quickly, but other times the new strips stand head and shoulders over the rest of the prog as a classic in the making. Fortunately Absalom falls firmly into the latter category.

Around this time last year I was pretty excited about the forthcoming debut of Absalom. As a spin-off of supernatural horror strip Caballistics Inc I had high hopes for Absalom before it had even started. Cabs Inc had been one of the best strips of the 21st century so far, so anything to do with it had to be good. That has certainly proved to be the case as Absalom is perhaps well on its way to surpassing its parent strip in every way. Absalom is one of those rare strips where everything is absolutely perfect...the writing, the art, the characters, the premise...everything is firing on all cylinders.

Having a good lead character is absolutely vital to any comic strip, particularly when he lends his name to the strips title. Inspector Harry Absalom is a fascinating leading man, riddled with incurable cancer yet apparently unable to die, he remains something of a mystery despite the reader knowing quite a bit of his backstory. We know that he is in fact hundreds of years old as is revealed in the first strip in this collection, having been witness to the signing of The Accord between the British Government and Hell itself, centuries in the past. Yet he also appears to be a modern day detective in the vein of Inspector Frost, albeit one who enforces a treaty made with Demons and Monsters. What's particularly great about Absalom is that this is just a job for him. Most supernatural investigators are portrayed as being interested in little outside their job. But for Absalom it's very much something he has to do, rather than something he chooses to do. The supporting cast are noteworthy too, including an apparent mole and a rather unusual little man who you really have to read the strip too be able to fully understand.

The art by Tiernen Trevallion is absolutely stunning throughout. His attention to detail is particularly noteworthy, just check out some of the backgrounds on the Ghosts of London strip. That panel with the Dog running off with a severed head is particularly hilarious. But it would mean nothing if the writing didn't back it up. With Gordon Rennie on script duties though, you know that the writing is going to be first class. All three strips included in this trade are absolutely must reads and I can't imagine there is anyone who reads 2000AD who wouldn't love to read Absalom. It should also be pointed out that Rennie makes sure you don't need to have read Caballistics Inc to be able to read Absalom, no prior knowledge is necessary.

In my opinion Absalom is the finest strip to debut in the prog since Stickleback's debut about five years ago now. As I said everything comes together to form a perfect supernatural horror strip, and one which looks to be even better than Caballistics Inc ever was. I sincerely hope that Absalom gets a good long run in the prog and that we will see many more trade collections in the future. Ghosts of London is an absolute must buy for any fan of 2000AD.

I first encountered Harry Absalom and his exploits in the 2000AD Programme 2013 special; after reading it i liked it so much i decided to order the collected trade from Amazon, and i couldn't have made a better choice.

Detective Inspector Harry Absalom is a veteran copper in London, who heads a special squad that enforces The Accord - a diplomatic treaty made in the sixteenth century between the throne of England and hell. If any demonic entities step out of line Harry and his team track the offenders down.

The comic was serialised in 2000AD and is an offshot of Caballistic Inc. But on this evidence Absalom more than holds its own. The story is written by Gordon Rennie and illustrated by the ever brilliant Tiernen Trvallion. When i first encountered his artwork in 2000AD/ Judge Dredd Megazine i fell head over er, heels in love with it! His artwork is a little reminscent of Mike Mignola's style, but more detailed and dare i say more accessible. sometimes there's a lot of things happening in just one panel as we shall see.

The trade consists of three stories. First of these is 'Noblesse Oblige'.
The story revolves around an escaped immate from a private santorium in Cumbria. It turns out that the escapee is a half breed demon. We learn that Cumbria is a place where the demon hierarchy (the Rathborne lineage) keep their offsprings which are born defective or too unhuman-like. The demonic lineage has infiltrated those in high society namely the royal family, rich bankers 'a couple of celebrity chefs and a few of the smug looking gits on the TV comedy quiz shows'. Soon Harry Absalom and his squad is tasked with finding the dangerous escapee. Along for the hunt is a new recruit, DS Jemima Hopkins. Harry's squad consists of himself, DS Terrance Sangster who is his understudy, Barney who can tell everything about a crime scene by the unorthodox method of tasting evidence. And by evidence we mean anything...even the victims blood! We also have two big blokes who act as bodyguards. But theres a slight oddity about them because it turns out they're both 'homunculi' (very Mignola-esque!), grown in Exeter! And of course DS Jemima Hopkins is thrown into the deep end of this very odd group indeed! But if she had any qualms or reservations about her safety she need not worry because Harry Absalom can more than hold his own and is one miserable bastard to have on your side, especially in times of trouble as they do in this particular case.

Another memorable character we also get to meet Mr. Critch, a 'butler' who's been serving the Rathborne family for centuries - kept alive by clockwork and patchwork (again very Mignola-esque or even Guillermo-esque!). The story comes to a very satisfying end, but not before it is revealed that there is a mole within Absalom's team...

'Sick Leave' was the second story. Here we see Harry Absalom making a visit to a hospital for checkup. He is suffering from pancreatic cancer ( this is not a spoiler as we learn about this from the start of the book) and he has been with this affliction for some time. In the first story it is hinted at thay Harry Absalom may be much older than he looks...not a few years here or there but much, much older as in centuries. Maybe kept alive a la Mr. Critch to do his masters bidding? Afterall he is the best at what he does. Anyhow, at the hospital he comes across a very familiar sight, familiar as in a doppelganger familiar! Albeit his double is in a far worse state. We gather from the encounter that this person or entity is the grim reaper. Its a really macabre moment and what makes it that more brilliant is the fact that at the same time, his team are in a run down estate in east London getting chased by a gang of demon hoodies! Although its a short read, its still a brilliant read which also helps us to learn more about the characters.

The third and last story in the trade is 'Ghosts of London'. Its my favourite story out of the three but only by a small margin because the others are so strong, but the thing that made it for me was one character - Spring Heeled Jack! He along with other strange phenomena is sweeping London. In the Thames the public are greeted with a river full of decapitated heads which appear to be from the Roman era. We have fire sweeping Pudding Lane where of course the Great Fire of London took place. And Cable Street in east London is witness to a mob battle between fascists and demonstrators reminiscent of Mosley's Battle of Cable Street. And of course that springy fella jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Just what the hell is going on? How are these historic incidents happening in present day London? Thats where Detective Inspector Harry Absalom and his team come in.

This story was such an enjoyable and entertaining read. Tiernan Trevalion's superb artwork is just mouthwatering to behold. As i stated earlier his panels have so much happening. One of my favourite is when we see Absalom in conversation with DS Hopkins whilst behind them a policeman is chasing after a dog who's running off with a severed head! Its a really hilarious sight. Another is of Harry hanging from a window ledge, "b****ks" he cries as the shape of Spring Heeled Jack is seen jumping away on the rooftops behind. Its such a brilliant shot, with many things happening in one panel. Of course all this is just part of the enjoyment; Gordon Rennie's witty writing with some memorable one liners for our miserable likeable inspector another part of the reason why Absalom: Ghosts of London is such an awesome read.